Typically, a paving screed is suspended on traction bars and drawn in travel direction behind a road paver to densify and to straighten the fresh road surface. Paving screeds usually have a compressor bar (tamper bar) with an adjustable vibration frequency and an adjustable stroke. In addition, a screed plate can be installed on a paving screed in order to finally straighten the fresh road surface, for example a bituminous mixture. The character and quality of a built-in road surface thereby depends on a series of paving parameters such as, for example, the paving speed, the tamper frequency, the tamper stroke and the setting angle of the paving screed.
To achieve the desired paving quality, these and other parameters of a road paver can be adapted during the paving process by means of appropriate adjustment units. It is advantageous in this process if an operating person has a view as good as possible on the road surface already installed and preferably also on the working process of the paving screed.
This can be achieved, for instance, by a control station with adjustment units to be installed above or behind the paving screed of the road paver so that an operating person on the control station will be able to oversee the current status of the work. Such an arrangement requires the provision of a suitable workspace, in particular a standing area, for an operating person on the control station.
From EP 2 366 832 A1, a paving screed for a road paver with an external control stand is known, wherein a horizontal step area is installed on the side of the paving screed, which is situated at the rear in the direction of travel of the road paver, on which a person can stand during operation of the adjustment units without coming in contact with the fresh paving material.
Such a step area enables an operating person during the working process to operate adjustment units installed on a paving screed without problems and to oversee the current paving status, but can turn out to be bothersome during transportation of the paving screed.
For this reason, it can be advantageous if the step area is tiltable between a horizontal operating position and a vertical transport position. For that, the step area can be tilted upwards from the horizontal position towards the paving screed if it is currently not needed.
Although this tiltability eliminates a few disadvantages of the step area with regard to the transportability of the paving screed of the road paver, it makes the standing area for the operating person more unstable.